As June (finally) brings us some summer weather, the Library would like to shine some light on a new development that’s been in the works behind-the-scenes.

While you’ve been taking exams and writing theses and starting your clerkship rotations, we’ve been getting ready to launch a new Integrated Library System and Discovery Platform! Which means that the way you search for items to check out, and the way we manage those items behind the desk is about to change.

On June 21, join us as we launch a new iteration of JumboSearch, a brand new way to search for books, articles, and other materials the library provides (including electronics, peripherals, and online books and journals).

You may notice some differences as you search, log in to your account, and access materials from off-campus, but everything you’re accustomed to will still be available. The only major difference is that if you were using Reading History in our current system, that information won’t migrate (so contact us for help!).

Is it just us or have a lot of books been making appearances on the big screen lately? Rolling Stone just released their 2017 Summer Movie Preview and we couldn’t help but notice that one of Stephen King’s books made the list. On August 4, 2017, The Dark Tower, the first installment […]

Is it just us or have a lot of books been making appearances on the big screen lately? Rolling Stone just released their 2017 Summer Movie Preview and we couldn’t help but notice that one of Stephen King’s books made the list. On August 4, 2017, The Dark Tower, the first installment of an adaptation of King’s Dark Tower series will hit theaters (Check out the trailer on Youtube). The film is technically a continuation of the novels, but will draw on elements from the The Gunslinger, the first book in the series.Borrow a copy from us and read the book first!

Interested in other movies that were books written by Stephen King? Check out his website for a complete movie list from A to Z.

In honor of Memorial day, the Hirsh Health Sciences Library will be closed on Monday May 29th, 2017. We will be open regular hours Friday May 26th, Saturday May 27th and Sunday May 28th and will be ready to help you with all your information needs on Tuesday May 30th. […]

In honor of Memorial day, the Hirsh Health Sciences Library will be closed on Monday May 29th, 2017. We will be open regular hours Friday May 26th, Saturday May 27th and Sunday May 28th and will be ready to help you with all your information needs on Tuesday May 30th. We hope that you have a restful day off and remember to pause for a moment of silence at 3:00 pm in memory of those who fought for our freedom.

Hi everybody! It’s been a little bit since my last statistics post (just about one year, in fact), so it seemed high time for me to do another one of these. Today I’ll be focusing on October 2016 and March 2017, which were our two Affiliation Months this year. For […]

Hi everybody! It’s been a little bit since my last statistics post (just about one year, in fact), so it seemed high time for me to do another one of these. Today I’ll be focusing on October 2016 and March 2017, which were our two Affiliation Months this year. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, that’s when the library staff go and ask every person in the library what their program is, so that we can have a general sense of how our space is being used.

Still with me? Good!

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This first chart is comparing the Affiliation Stats from October 2016 and March 2017. To gather this info, we chose 7 days out of each month (one Sunday, one Monday, etc. All were chosen randomly) and on those days went around 4 times a day. This is always an interesting comparison due to the different programs and the way they operate. Dental and Medical students were gearing up for board and class exams, so it’s no surprise that we would see so many extras in March. There was a jump in PA as well (new class means new exams!), but then we saw drops with Sackler, Friedman, MBS, and PHPD. So what happened there? It’s hard to say. Different timing on exams, different demands on the classes, all sorts of things can affect attendance in the library. Ultimately, March was still the busier month: we counted 3,327 people in March, but only counted 3,115 people back in October.

The thing to keep in mind is that these numbers are only a snapshot. To truly know what the individual program attendance in this library is like for a full month we would need to gather this data every single day for that entire month, and that is unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how much quiet you like) unrealistic for us. Do you know what is quite realistic, however? Collecting a month’s worth of circulation data!

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Bam. That’s a full month of data right there! So what does this show us when compared to the Affiliation graph? Well for one, we can see that the space was occupied more than our things were being checked out to a point, which is actually pretty normal. People do like checking things out (skulls! laptops! books! phone chargers! oh my!), but the library keeps adding more and more space, making it easier to go and hide out and get your studying in.

But here are some thoughts: why are the numbers so similar? We never have had a 1-1 relationship between studying and circulation before, but parts of this are surprisingly close. What’s causing the numbers to fluctuate the way they do? Consider: we have exams in March and April, and Extended Hours at the end of March. Affiliation was overall higher (by 212 people), but Circulation was lower (by 249 checkouts). Weird, right?

There are many factors that affect all of these numbers, but I won’t be going into them in this post. There’s only so much space, and I still need to talk about the floors!

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So. Dental students love the 7th floor. Surprise! Medical and MBS are also huge fans, so it looks like all of those new study carrels we added last summer really helped! Everybody else is spread rather evenly over the floors, although I do find it interesting that the PA students go up to 7 when they’re not in class (I guess to get away from the classrooms – can’t say I blame anyone). It’s good to see people like the furniture and spaces so much! Warms the heart (which is numbered and on a stand, and you can check out from the Library Service desk for 4 hours at a time. I’m not kidding).

The 7th floor has always been the most popular (generally about twice as popular as any of the other floors), and the breakdown after that is always fascinating. Medical students overwhelmingly prefer the 7th, followed by 6 – study quiet, which makes sense. Since the 4th and 5th floors offer some small group opportunities, those are split evenly. Dental may trend toward groups even more so than I used to think – perhaps that’s why there are so many up on 7, and then in decreasing order from 4, 5, and 6?

I would like to state that it is exciting to see Sackler, Friedman, PA, PHPD, and MBS showing up in larger and larger numbers. Hirsh Health Sciences Library is for everyone on the campus, and we want you all to feel welcome! That’s why we have so many study carrels, and the Collaboration Rooms, and craft days, and all the other things that make the days go round. And based on the posts from over the last few years, it seems like we’re only getting more and more popular, which is fantastic. Feel free to keep coming in bigger numbers, we have space for you all!

And on that uplifting note I will leave you for now. Perhaps I will be able to do a look at the full year’s numbers in a few months, so keep your eyes peeled. Until then: good luck with any exams you have left, and I’ll see you all around the library!

It’s Stress Less Week and we’re here to help! Join us at the Library Service Desk on Wednesday 4/26 from 3-4:30pm for a relaxing study break. Afternoon Tea won our Library March Madness Tournament last month, so what better way to help you de-stress than with […]

It’s Stress Less Week and we’re here to help! Join us at the Library Service Desk on Wednesday 4/26 from 3-4:30pm for a relaxing study break. Afternoon Tea won our Library March Madness Tournament last month, so what better way to help you de-stress than with your favorite thing?

The Wellness Advisor is also holding a number of other events this week, be sure to check them out!Tuesday 4/25 at 4pm: Intro to Meditation, Sackler 812Thursday 4/27 from 12-1pm: How to Live With Less Stress, Sackler 316Friday 4/28 from 3-4:30pm: Ice Cream and Furry Friends, Jaharis Courtyard

Need a good luck charm to get you through finals? Want to give a friend a boost while they’re in a marathon study session? Then stop by the Library Service Desk on Thursday 4/13 and Friday 4/14 starting at noon! We’ll have all the supplies you need to make […]

Need a good luck charm to get you through finals? Want to give a friend a boost while they’re in a marathon study session? Then stop by the Library Service Desk on Thursday 4/13 and Friday 4/14 starting at noon! We’ll have all the supplies you need to make some motivational tokens for yourself or your friends. We have round and square glass gems, colored papers, paint pens, and Mod Podge. What more could you need? We may even drag out the button maker…

The busiest time of the semester is here and Paws for People is coming to help you de-stress! On Thurs 4/6 from 3-5pm Hirsh will be hosting some of our favorite furry friends in the glass-walled room behind the cafe on Sackler 4. And, a a […]

The busiest time of the semester is here and Paws for People is coming to help you de-stress! On Thurs 4/6 from 3-5pm Hirsh will be hosting some of our favorite furry friends in the glass-walled room behind the cafe on Sackler 4. And, a a special treat, our canine visitors will be joined by some rabbits and a guinea pig! Hope to see you there!

When it comes to your thesis, dissertation, or other degree-fulfilling project, there’s a lot to consider and a lot to do. The library has created a new webpage providing links to various resources you may need along the way, such as to help you find other people’s […]

When it comes to your thesis, dissertation, or other degree-fulfilling project, there’s a lot to consider and a lot to do. The library has created a new webpage providing links to various resources you may need along the way, such as to help you find other people’s theses, select a citation management tool, develop a data management plan, design a research study, search for articles on your topic, utilize images and figures, manage copyright, and more! Whether you’re at the planning, researching, writing, or submitting phase, we can assist, so check it out!

Measuring Research ImpactWant to know how many times an article has been cited, or find your h-index? Always wanted to know what journal Impact Factor is? In this workshop, we will show you how to find the number of times an article has been cited, create a citation report for a set of articles or an author, and compare citation statistics for authors, journals or articles in a particular field. We will also discuss emerging metrics (‘altmetrics’), such as the number of times an article has been viewed or downloaded. Finally, we will review the different metrics used to evaluate journals, and how to choose the right journal for your manuscript.

Visualizing Data with “R”: An Introduction
R is an open source programming language used to manipulate, analyze, and visualize data. Researchers and health professionals can use it to convey complex information in a manner that is easy to understand. The flexibility of R allows large amounts of data to be processed and represented in ways that spreadsheet programs cannot. This introductory workshop provides a brief overview of how R works and what it’s capable of. This session will end with a hands-on data visualization exercise utilizing a sample data set. No prior experience with R or programming languages is required.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

9:00am -1 0:00am

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

4:00pm – 5:00pm

Data Management Essentials
In this workshop, we will review best practices for naming, organizing, storing, and depositing your research data, as well as creating a Data Management Plan. Managing data before, during and after research is essential to ensure it remains accessible and usable.

Introduction to HTML and CSS
Coding is a crucial skill needed to succeed in a variety of disciplines. Learning Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is no different. HTML is the code used to create web pages and Cascading Styling Sheets (CSS) is used to style them. This introductory workshop gives an overview of HTML and CSS with a hands-on exercise utilizing the text editor Notepad ++. No prior experience with web design is needed.

Comprising an archive of more than 30,000 pages of content from the American Physiological Society’s renowned Handbook of Physiology (HoP), which was published as a series of books from 1977 to 2008: presented here for the first time in digital format.

Comprehensive Physiology is the most authoritative and comprehensive collection of physiology information ever assembled, and uses the most powerful features of review journals and electronic reference works to cover the latest key developments in the field, through the most authoritative articles on the subjects covered.

This makes Comprehensive Physiology a valued reference work on the evolving science of physiology for both researchers and clinicians. It also provides a useful teaching tool for instructors and an informative resource for medical students and other students in the life and health sciences.